Responding Thoughtfully to Chronic Stress and Rising Demands (copy/paste)

Read the full article here: Sokal, L., Eblie Trudel, L., & Babb, J. (2020, Fall). It’s okay to be okay too. Why calling out teachers’ “toxic positivity” may backfire. Education Canada, 60(3),  https://www.edcan.ca/articles/its-ok-to-be-ok-too/

Summary & Key Highlights

In today’s education system, chronic stress and increasing demands have become part of the daily reality – not only for teachers but for staff working in many different roles in schools.  Heavy workloads, administrative pressures, student needs, and staffing shortages contribute to rising levels of burnout.  While educators are often encouraged to remain positive and resilient, not all approaches to achieving positivity are helpful.

This research study highlights the difference between resilience-based optimism and toxic positivity.  While resilience-based optimism acknowledges both challenges and benefits in a realistic and balanced way, toxic positivity involves the dismissal of real challenges in favor of forced, unrealistic optimism. When teachers express stress, frustration, or exhaustion, they sometimes hear messages like:

“Just stay positive—everything will work out.”

“We’re all in the same boat, so let’s push through.”

“Good teachers don’t let the stress get to them.”

Despite being well-intended, these responses invalidate the realities of schools, leaving individuals feeling unheard, unsupported, and more isolated.

Key Takeaways for Schools & Leaders

• ü Avoid Toxic Positivity: Encouraging teachers to stay positive without addressing systemic stressors leads to suppressed emotions and disengagement.

• ü Encourage Balanced Responses: A resilient school culture acknowledges both the stretches and the strengths that come with the profession.

• ü Create Whole-School Support Systems: Providing mentorship, mental health resources, and manageable workloads to sustain long-term well-being.

• ü Recognize the Impact of Chronic Stress: Burnout isn’t just an individual issue—it’s a workplace issue. Schools must actively reduce stressors rather than expecting teachers to simply cope.

📖 Case Study: Managing Stress within the School Environment

Scenario: When Support Feels Dismissive

Emma is a fourth-grade teacher in a busy school. With seven years of experience in the classroom, she has found her footing in the profession and usually feels confident and competent. She loves teaching, but this year the increasing demands of large class sizes have left her exhausted. She has over 30 students in her class, many with diverse learning needs, and finds it impossible to give each child the attention they require.

At a staff meeting, she finally speaks up:

“I’m really struggling to meet everyone’s needs in my class. I feel like I’m stretched too thin, and I don’t know how to manage it all.”

One of the school administrators at the meeting replies, “I’ve always admired how resilient this team is. Challenges like these are where we grown the most.  Let’s try not to dwell on the negatives, Emma – our students really need our energy right now.”

The room falls silent. Emma nods, forcing a smile, but inside, she feels dismissed and unsupported. Instead of receiving validation or solutions, she has received a response that minimizes her reality.

Over the next few weeks, Emma finds herself withdrawing from staff discussions, avoiding the admin. team, and pushing through exhaustion. As the end of the year approaches, she’s questioning whether she wants to continue teaching at all.

💡 What Could Be Done Differently?

·       Acknowledge Reality:

o   “I hear you, Emma, and I know this is a major challenge. Let’s talk more about this right after the meeting.”

• Provide Meaningful Support:
  • o Encourage collaborative planning time to ease the burden on individual teachers.
  • o Implement peer mentoring or co-teaching strategies for large class sizes.
  • o Consider staffing adjustments to better support high-needs classrooms.

• Build Resilience:
  • o Instead of encouraging teachers to push through, schools should create opportunities for open dialogue about stress.
  • o By acknowledging difficulties while developing sustainable strategies, school staff members are more likely to remain engaged and motivated.

💭 Reflection & Application

1. Have you ever experienced or witnessed a situation where concerns about workload or stress were dismissed without discussion? How did that impact morale?

2. How can leaders differentiate between encouraging optimism and invalidating stress? What are examples of positive but realistic responses to teacher concerns?

3. What practical strategies can schools implement to reduce teacher burnout, rather than expecting teachers to simply adapt?

4. Describe leadership practices that create a school culture where teachers feel heard, valued, and supported?

5. How do you personally respond to stress at work? Are there school-wide changes that would make a difference in your professional well-being?

🛠 Activities for Application

🔹 Activity 1.1: Scenario Practice (Role-Play for Staff Meetings)

• Divide into pairs.

• One person plays a teacher expressing stress, and the other plays a school leader or colleague responding.

• The leader/colleague must practice responding with validation and practical support, not toxic positivity.
• o Which responses felt supportive?
• o Which responses shut down the conversation?
• o How can school leaders foster a culture where teachers feel heard and valued?

Follow-up Discussion:

1. How does the discussion between colleagues differ from the discussion between individuals with more overt power differentials such as those between junior and senior staff, staff in different roles, or staff and administration?
2. How, if at all, would the situation change if the concern was disclosed in private as opposed to being shared at a staff meeting? What are the benefits and drawbacks of each situation?

🔹 Activity 1.2a: The “Positivity vs. Support” Challenge

• Present staff with different statements related to teacher stress (e.g., “I feel completely overwhelmed by my workload”).

• Ask staff to write two responses:
• o A toxic positivity response (e.g., “Just stay positive!”)
• o A balanced and supportive response (e.g., “That sounds really challenging—let’s figure out a way to help.”)

🔹 Activity 1.2b: The “Positivity vs. Support” Challenge (Supported Version)

(use this activity with staff who may need more support to generate examples for the discussion scenarios).

• Place participants into pairs. Have them each choose a role to play (e.g. experienced teacher, new teacher, educational assistant, principal, office staff, etc.).

• Present staff with three types of dialogue statements related to teacher stress:

Situation Prompts

“I feel completely overwhelmed by my workload.”

“The kids in my class have no respect for anyone—not even themselves.”

“I can hardly wait to get out of this place at the end of the day.”

“I just can’t find the joy in this anymore.”

“Why is this so much harder than it used to be?”

“Why do I feel so alone and embarrassed? I feel like this job is impossible. Am I the only one brave enough to speak up?”

Responses

“Just stay positive!”

“That’s the way it is now. You need to figure this out.”

“What has changed?”

“Well, I know that my students look to me for encouragement, and I can’t do that if I’m a Negative Nelly.”

“That happened to my friend too.”

“Can we meet to talk about this later? I want to give this concern the time it needs.”

“I have felt that way too.”

“What is working in your job? Is there a way to maximize that part?”

“I have never felt that way. I love this job, and I think things are fine. You just need to focus on the good things.

Emotions

Choose from the following list or from the emotion pinwheel for many more options.

• Heard
• Supported
• Shamed
• Neutral
• Hopeful
• Valued
• Dismissed
• Validated
• Curious

• Ask staff within their chosen roles to
• o Choose a situation prompt together
• o Have one person choose a response to the prompt from the list and deliver it.
• o Have the other person choose the emotion provoked by the response and explain why they felt that way.
• o Choose or generate a response that would provoke a more positive feeling and more likely lead to a discussion of solutions.
• o Switch the order of participation and repeat.

• Discuss how responses shape staff morale and engagement.

🔹 Activity 1.3: School Well-Being Audit and Dotmocracy

• Generate a list of current workplace stressors.

• Dotmocracy: Write each main issue on a separate page and post these around the room. Provide each participant with 3 sticky dots and ask them to place the dots on the issue(s) they would most like to have addressed. They may place all their dots on one issue page or may spread them between issues.

• Review and discuss the results of the Dotmocracy exercise together. Commit to one small change per term or semester to improve overall staff well-being.

• Create a Well-Being Action Plan with practical, school-wide solutions to support staff resilience without relying on forced positivity. Be sure to revisit the plan and check your progress.

📝 Your Action Plan: Addressing Toxic Positivity in Schools

Now that you have explored the impact of toxic positivity and its effects on individuals and school culture, take a moment to develop a short action plan to create a more authentic and supportive environment for educators and students.